I have cut an article out of this mornings Times, ‘Factory life of organic chickens’ and stuck it onto the top of the packing case marked ‘Philippa’s bedroom’.

My daughter has given me hell for years with regard to what she will and won’t eat. I have suffered verbal onslaught if I have ever dared to buy eggs which are not free range - or heaven help me if I ever dashed into a supermarket and flew out again with a non organic chicken under my arm!

Fact is, I have never been entirely happy that supermarkets lived up to the ‘organic’ brand. I have always known that food labelling in this country is not what it should be – and you don’t have to be farmer Ted to know that if a chicken is truly organic then the price is going to be pretty high, nothing like what you pay in supermarkets.

I hope we see more articles in the media like this one. Supermarkets need to be more honest, food needs to be labelled accurately and then we the consumers can make informed choices. If I, like everyone else, knew that what I was buying was truly organic, I would pay it.

Never again will my daughter be able to wave a chicken leg in my face again and say “see how thin that bone is – it’s because the poor chicken couldn’t stand up in it's cage”, with any degree of confidence, which is a shame. It appears that organic, as we know it, may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

I think it’s time to ask the leader of the house for a debate on organic labelling.

This is the last day of packing. Yesterday was an awful day which just got worse as it went on.

Last night I was in the house on my own feeling pretty miserable, tired, dusty and down. Suddenly an angel walked in through the front door, carrying a bottle of Rioja, two wine glasses, and a big bag of crisps.

We couldn’t find the cork screw. We did find a screwdriver and dug out the top of the cork and then pushed the remainder in and held it in the bottle as we poured out the wine! We sat on the two remaining un-wrapped comfy chairs and laughed, in my case the semi hysterical laughter of exhaustion, and drank beautiful red wine full of cork droppings – it was bliss.

Hi Nadine
This is Sue Carroll, I don't know if you remember me, I worked for you in Hazel Grove during the 2001 election.
Found your blog a few days ago & read it regularly - you're still as sensible as ever & write in an interesting & informtive style - as ever! I wish you'd been elected up here - our loss!
Hope the move goes well.
Will keep reading you!
Regards
Sue

Nadine said:

Responded: Monday, 19 February 2007

Hi Sue, how could I forget you! Great to hear from you and glad you enjoy the blog. If you see the other 'girls' give them my love x

Peter said:

Responded: Tuesday, 20 February 2007

In the early 60's we had chicken as a special treat and ate beef as our normal roast. Since then the price of beef has stayed approximately where it was (in real terms) because cows are still looked after in more or less the same way. Chicken has come right down in price as a result of factory farming. As you so rightly say, if it were truly organic it would be quite a lot more expensive.
Our policies on food and agriculture are ultimately not sustainable, and we often end up eating poor quality food. It's something that truly needs a world view and that we should all give a lot more thought.